The US economy expanded at a rate of 3.6 per cent in the third quarter, much
faster than the 2.8 per cent initial estimate, according to new government
data.

The figure from the Commerce Department was higher than the 3.2 per cent
expected by economists and represents the fastest rate of growth since the
first quarter of 2012. It coincides with separate data released today
showing a drop in new claims for jobless benefits to 298,000 last week, from
321,000 the week before.

Most of the GDP growth was driven by a 1.68 percentage point build-up of
business inventories to